ďThis morning I had a chance to speak with Speaker Boehner and I told him that I am happy to talk with him and other Republicans about anything. But I also told him that having such a conversation, talks, negotiations, shouldnít require hanging threats of a government shutdown or economic chaos over the heads of the American people. Think about it this way: The American people do not get to demand a ransom for doing their jobs. You donít get a chance to call your bank and say ĎIím not going to pay my mortgage this month unless you throw in a new car and an Xbox.í If youíre in negotiations around buying someoneís house you donít get to say ĎWell, letís talk about the price Iím going to pay and if you donít give me the price Iím going to burn down your house.í Thatís not how negotiations work. Thatís not how it happens in business. Itís not how it happens in private life. In the same way, members of Congress and House Republicans in particular donít get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs. And two of their very basic jobs are passing a budget and making sure that America is paying its bills. They also donít get to say ĎUnless you give me what the voters rejected in the last election Iím going to cause a recession.í Thatís not how it works. No American president would deal with a foreign leader like this. Most of you would not deal with either co-workers or business associates in this fashion and we shouldnít be dealing this way in Washington. Iíve heard Republicans say this is reasonable and entirely appropriate, but imagine if a Democratic Congress threatened to crash the global economy unless a Republican president agreed to gun background checks or immigration reform. I think itís fair to say Republicans would not think that was appropriate. So letís lift these threats from our families and from our businesses and letís get down to work.Ē Ė President Obama (10/8/13)

Did you see that video clip of Neil deGrasse Tyson responding to an email asking whether NASA could provide the coordinates for a black hole so that we could shoot off the Rep. reps? NDT's answer was, well--sure, NASA could do that, and if you had a rocket you could send those folks off. But, he continued, it's not the politicians who should be sent off. It's the people who elected them.

You know that particular poll or whatever strikes me as very Borat-esque (though I have never actually seen that movie). It's a deliberately misleading question trying to draw ignorance and partisan views out of people. If Obama hadn't decided to "own" the term Obamacare I bet not as many people would have "failed" that question, which I assume didn't have a check box for "they are the same thing". If someone had asked me that question with a straight face I might have assumed they were asking, "do you support the ACA but not how it will manifest itself as 'Obamacare'?"

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